José María Bocabella y Verdaguer (5 September 1815 – 22 April 1892) was a Spanish bookseller and philanthropist, best known for initiating the construction of the Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família in Barcelona.

Biography

Bocabella was born in 1815 at 2 Cotoners Street in

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, the son of Llorens Bocabella i Bunyol and Francisca Verdaguer i Bollich. He owned the religious publishing house and bookstore ''Herederos de la Viuda Pla''. In 1861, after a trip to

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, he developed a strong devotion to

Saint Joseph According to the canonical Gospels, Joseph (; ) was a 1st-century Jewish man of Nazareth who was married to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and was the legal father of Jesus. Joseph is venerated as Saint Joseph in the Catholic Church, Eastern O ...

, which led him to promote Christian family values. To this end, he founded the ''Association of Devotees of Saint Joseph'' (1866), which reportedly had up to 600,000 members. He also launched the magazine ''El propagador de la devoción a San José'' in 1866, modeled after the French periodical ''Propagateur de la dévotion a Saint Joseph'' published by Joseph Huguet in Sainte-Foy near

Dijon Dijon (, ; ; in Burgundian language (Oïl), Burgundian: ''Digion'') is a city in and the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Côte-d'Or Departments of France, department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Regions of France, region in eas ...

. The initial circulation reached 25,000 copies. The publication continues to this day under the name ''Temple''. He also established workshops for workers and apprentices. Bocabella conceived the idea of building a Catholic temple dedicated to the

Holy Family The Holy Family consists of the Child Jesus, the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph. The subject became popular in art from the 1490s on,Ainsworth, 122 but veneration of the Holy Family was formally begun in the 17th century by Saint François de La ...

. He purchased a plot of land in the

Eixample The Eixample (, ) is a district of Barcelona between the old city (Ciutat Vella) and what were once surrounding small towns (Sants, Gràcia, Sant Andreu, etc.), constructed in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Its population was 262,000 at ...

, in an area then known as El Poblet, near Camp de l'Arpa, in the former municipality of

Sant Martí de Provençals Sant Martí de Provençals is a neighborhood in the '' Sant Martí'' district of Barcelona, Catalonia (Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Fe ...

. The land cost 172,000 pesetas (equivalent to around €1,034 today). The original design was commissioned from architect

Francisco de Paula del Villar y Lozano Francisco de Paula del Villar y Lozano (1828, in Murcia – 1901, in Barcelona) was a Spanish architect. Biography Villar studied architecture in Madrid at the Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, and qualified in 1852. The following year he ...

, who proposed a

Neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half of the 19th century ...

structure, rejecting Bocabella’s idea of replicating the

Basilica della Santa Casa The Basilica della Santa Casa () is a Marian shrine in Loreto, Marche, Loreto, in Marche, the Marches, Italy. The basilica is known for enshrining the house in which the Blessed Virgin Mary is believed by some Catholics to have lived. Pious legen ...

. In 1883, Villar resigned due to disagreements with

Joan Martorell Joan Martorell i Montells () (born 1833 in Barcelona, died 5 July 1906 in Barcelona) was a Catalan architect and designer. He was an uncle of the architect Bernardí Martorell i Puig. Martorell worked in the styles of historicism and Gothic Re ...

, Bocabella's architectural adviser. The commission was then offered to Martorell, who declined and suggested

Antoni Gaudí Antoni Gaudí i Cornet ( , ; ; 25 June 1852 – 10 June 1926) was a Catalans, Catalan architect and designer from Spain, widely known as the greatest exponent of Catalan ''Modernisme''. Gaudí's works have a style, with most located in Barc ...

, who would go on to devote his life to the project. Bocabella was married to Teresa Puig i Xicola, with whom he had a daughter, Francisca de Paula Bocabella y Puig. She continued his work with the publishing house and the Construction Board of the Expiatory Temple of the Sagrada Família. He died in 1892 and was buried in the Chapel of the Holy Christ in the Crypt of the

Sagrada Família The Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família, otherwise known as Sagrada Família, is a church under construction in the Eixample district of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It is the largest unfinished Catholic church in the world. Desi ...

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Bibliography

* * * * * {{cite book , last=Ritthausen , first=Marianne , title=Barcelona, Tradition und Moderne. Studien zur künstlerischen Inszenierung einer Metropole , year=1992 , publisher=Jonas Verlag 1815 births 1892 deaths Spanish philanthropists Philanthropists from Catalonia People from Barcelona Deaths in Barcelona